Candidates & their Curriculum Vitea's

I read yesterday that three quarters of candidates CV’s get rejected if they contain mistakes. And my honest response is….really – only that few?

This blog is borne out of hearing of this statistic on the same day as receiving a CV that seemed to go against everything that’s happening ‘out there’ in the jobs market & I thought it was worth sharing.

Firstly I bother. I read into CV’s. I check facts & even if they're no good for the particular role, I reject EVERY CV personally. I do allow for mistakes & I give people a chance. I will ask rather than discount & though I’ve got very high standards on behalf of my company & my clients…I get that we all have strong & weak points. Indeed mine is IT. But I got a CV yesterday from a reasonably good candidate who I’d rang 3 times (this was my last go) & who when answered the phone sounded quite disinterested. But I persevered as I think you have to go forward, & again, give people a chance.

At this stage it’s crucial to tell you that this candidate sent her CV voluntarily into me. For an advertised, specific, live & very much applied-for role (140 CV’s in 9 days.) During the (one sided) conversation I asked what her min basic was. £19k was her response. I asked her what she’d been on. £16k was her response. So I then asked her why she applied for a role that was advertised at £17k? To which she answered ‘oh I just apply for anything & everything – who were you again & what job was it?’

I’ll repeat. Looking for £19k.

Now, if I was a different kind of recruiter, I could have had the last cruel laugh. But I didn’t as I then dropped the bombshell that she might struggle with that salary – bearing in mind the actual words on the top of her CV (sorry ‘Curriculum Vitea’), in 18 point Verdana were spelled incorrectly.